This invention relates to a data editing method and system for use in an information processing system using a computer and a display unit, and more particularly to a data editing method and system which allows the operator to edit data displayed on the screen of the display unit while watching the display screen.
A text editing system is explained in, for example, "Information Processing" Vol. 25, No. 8 (1984), pp 759-766, published in Japan.
In editing data, it sometimes occurs that among data representative of characters, symbols, patterns and the like stored in a file unit such as a disc storage, only specified data should be updated. For example, when the data stored in the file unit is representative of a sentence in the form of a character string, a specified word (sentence) in the sentence is sometimes desired to be replaced with another word (sentence). In another instance, only replaced (updated) words (sentence) before then are desired to be updated irrespective of the specified word.
In the conventional text editing system, the update processing is carried out by reading data, within a range which can be displayed over the screen of the display unit, out of the file unit, displaying the read data on the screen, finding specified data out of the displayed data through visual inspection conducted by the operator and renewing the specified data. Accordingly, in order to complete the updating of specified data selected from the data stored in the file unit, it is necessary for the operator to conduct a sequential display of all of the stored data by using a screen scrolling function, find the specified data through visual inspection and conduct the update processing. However, this processing is extremely time-consuming and very likely to cause an erroneous updating or an oversight of updating.